


Stay

by angel



Series: Bookstore AU [9]
Category: White Collar RPF
Genre: Broken Bones, Developing Relationship, M/M, Permanent Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 12:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel/pseuds/angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Changing a light bulb shouldn't be dangerous, but Tim might be a little clumsy sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anodyneer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anodyneer/gifts).



> Art by the awesome kanarek13!

Tim glared at Matt and pointed a stern index finger at him. "Stay put."

Matt made a show of leaning against the wall and setting his crutches aside while he laughed. "You'll get no arguments from me. I'm not getting up there."

"So you weren't dragging this chair over here two minutes ago?" Tim had come home a little early from work to find Matt pushing a dining room chair across the floor. There was a spiral bulb sticking out of his back pocket and one of the bulbs in the living room light fixture was clearly burnt out.

Raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, Matt innocently asked, "What if I was getting it ready for when you came home?"

Tim raised an eyebrow and shook his head. Sometimes, he really worried about what Matt would do if they weren't living together, or if he didn't occasionally come home at four instead of six. 

The chair was wobbly, but he managed to get the bulbs switched out in just a couple of minutes. Everything was going fine until he twisted to give Matt a triumphant grin. His foot slipped, and then he was falling the short distance to the hardwood floor.

"Tim!" Matt was at his side before Tim could even register what had happened. There was pain in his right wrist, which must have taken the brunt of the impact, but otherwise he felt okay. He shifted to try and sit up but Matt put a hand on his chest. "Wait a minute. Stay down."

"I'm okay," Tim automatically responded.

"Let me be the judge of that, okay?"

Tim had never seen Matt in action as a first responder and it was kind of striking to see it now. He kept up a running commentary of what he was doing while he felt Tim's neck and skull for injuries. Then, he checked for a concussion, which was a test Tim was pleased to pass with flying colors. Then, he turned his attention to Tim's right side. "It looked like you fell on your arm. Can you wiggle your fingers?"

He compiled but groaned when pain shot up his arm and through his shoulder. 

"Where does it hurt?" Matt was already unbuttoning the sleeve of Tim's dress shirt and easing it up his arm. 

"My wrist mostly. Is it broken?"

Matt frowned and looked up to meet Tim's gaze. "Maybe. We'll have to go to the ER to get x-rays and find out. Stay there. I'll splint it before you get up."

Tim groaned again, not looking forward to the wait or to explaining what happened to a doctor. "Can we say I fell saving some kids from an exploding school bus or something?"

Matt chuckled as he used the coffee table to get to his feet. "You can tell your co-workers whatever you want, but the doctor has to know what really happened." He looked down and pointed his index finger at Tim. " _Stay put._ "

"Haha," Tim replied with a roll of his eyes.

It took Matt a few minutes to find the old brace he'd used after spraining his wrist in a pick-up game of basketball years ago. Tim's wrist was already swelling, so Matt adjusted the brace as best he could and then got an icepack out of the freezer. 

"How are you doing?"

"Could be worse." He gritted his teeth and swallowed down a moan of misery when Matt finally allowed him to get to his feet. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his stomach gave an unhappy lurch. He didn't think the pain was that bad, but then he had to move his arm. "Could definitely be better."

Matt took one look at him and started nudging him toward a chair. "I'll call a cab. Sit down for a minute. Let me know if you're going to be sick."

Tim scoffed at that but gratefully took a seat. He cradled his aching arm to his chest and held the icepack in place over the brace.

Matt took charge from there, whether it was prodding Tim to his feet when the cab arrived or coaxing him out when they got to the hospital. He also filled out the ER forms and sweet-talked the nurses into taking Tim back relatively quickly for someone who wasn't bleeding profusely or otherwise critical.

The whole process was long and painful and something that Tim never cared to repeat. Night had long since fallen when he was released with a white cast from the palm of his hand to a little below his elbow and a hideous blue plastic sling to support it. Matt had taken his prescription down the street to a pharmacy to get it filled while the doctor was casting him, and he'd also accepted the discharge instructions and list of things to watch out for from the nurse. 

He barely remembered the trip home, but he really hoped he hadn't been singing showtunes in the backseat of the cab all the way back to the apartment. The injection they'd given him for pain in the ER was pretty potent stuff but ultimately didn't dull the pain of the examination, the x-rays, or the casting nearly as much as he would have liked. 

The last thing he recalled that night was Matt setting his arm up on a pillow, putting an icepack over the cast, and giving him a tender kiss.

~~!!~~

Morning dawned with the blaring of an alarm clock that Tim prayed was Matt's. It squawked repeatedly until Tim felt the bed shift and Matt's quiet cursing as he as got up and made his way around the bed to shut it off. Damn, that meant it wasn't Matt's.

"You awake?" Matt asked softly. He swept Tim's hair off his forehead and stroked his cheek with the back of his fingers.

"Mmm," was Tim's only response. He didn't even open his eyes.

Matt chuckled. "I'm going to call Diahann and let her know you won't be in today. Go back to sleep."

"Umhmm, 'kay," Tim mumbled and drifted back off.

~~!!~~

The next time he woke, sun was beating through the thin curtains and warming his face. Tim rolled to the side to get away from it and groaned when his arm banged against the mattress.

"Hey there." Matt's voice came from above him, and Tim blinked his eyes open to find Matt sitting on the bed beside him with a laptop on his lap and his glasses on. He patted Tim's shoulder and smiled down at him. "How are you doing?"

"Ugh. It hurts."

"I figured as much." Matt leaned to the side and then held up a giant horse pill and a glass of water with a bendy straw for Tim to see. "Take this. It'll help."

Tim had to prop himself up on his left elbow, but Matt held the glass and straw for him, which made things much easier. Once he'd had his fill, he laid back down and burrowed his face into Matt's pajama-clad thigh. "Not working today?"

"I told Marsha I'd call once you were up. I can stay home, if you want."

"Nah. I'll be okay."

"You sure?"

Tim shook his head. He hadn't realized how miserable one could be when they broke a bone. He felt like he'd been run over by a truck, and he really wanted to stay in bed with his boyfriend for the rest of time.

Matt rubbed a hand over his back and leaned down to kiss his temple. "I'll be here. We can order something from Willie's for lunch, and maybe Italian for dinner." He started to disentangle himself, but Tim whined and gripped the soft material of his pants. 

"Stay."

"I'll be right back. You shouldn't have taken the pain pill on an empty stomach, but I knew you wouldn't want to sit up without it. I'm going to grab you something from the kitchen. Then, you can go back to sleep."

Matt returned with a banana, a granola bar, and a fresh bottle of water. Tim ate it all and finished the water before squirming back under the covers and settling in again. Matt stroked a hand through his hair until he fell asleep, feeling loved and cared for and maybe a little bit high from the medication.

~End

Thanks for reading!


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